The SES has lost its luster in recent years, in part because of constrained program budgets, increased scrutiny from Congress, and a sense among members that political appointees are assuming more of the leadership responsibilities once reserved for them. In part two of our special report, Fixing the SES, five Senior Executive Service members tell Federal News Radio why they choose to stay in the service, and why they believe the SES may have its faults, but it's not broken.

By some estimates, taking out just nine critical electrical substations could plunge the whole nation into darkness. Threats to the electrical grid aren't just from cybersecurity, but also from a lack of physical security. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission asked the Battelle Memorial Institute to look into security of the bulk electricity system. Jason Black is the research leader at Battelle. He joined Tom Temin and Emily Kopp on the Federal Drive to talk about his findings.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has filled out its leadership under an unusual political deal. The Senate has confirmed the agency's Enforcement Chief Norman Bay to chair the commission. But he will have to wait nine months. In the interim, Acting Chairman Cheryl LeFleur will continue to lead the agency. Bay will serve as a board member while learning the ropes. Don Kettl is a professor at the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland. He joined Tom Temin and Emily Kopp on the Federal Drive to explain this unusual case.

Federal agencies across the government have dipped their toes in the mobile pond. While agencies have implemented the new technology for a variety of reasons, there are a couple of common lessons learned shared by the early adopters. Two federal chief information officers who have overseen their agency's mobile transitions shared best practices and compelling use-cases in a panel discussion as part of Federal News Radio's special series, Gov 3.0: It's Mobile.

Program will discuss Key Initiatives Around "Cloud Computing" in Government, Key Benefits Associated with Cloud Computing, Barriers or Contraints to still overcome, How to Address Security Concerns in a Cloud Computing Strategy, Private vs Public Clouds, A Future Vision for the next 1-2 Years in Cloud Computing

Jerry Grochow, a research affiliate at the MIT Energy Initiative and the former vice president for Information Services and Technology at MIT, joined In Depth with Francis Rose to discuss how the federal government could reset its cyber priorities for the electric grid.

About 3,400 customers in the Washington region are without power amid a heat wave. Among them, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and ATF, prompting them to close for the day. Employees are encouraged to telework as possible.

The House is preparing to once again take up legislation that would grant the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission new authority to order private electrical grid operators to take emergency action in the event of a cyber attack or a new vulnerability. The power would extend to bulk electric systems and parts of the grid that supply electricity to Defense infrastructure that is critical to national security.

A draft US Senate committee bill that would give the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission limited cybersecurity oversight of state-jurisdictional electric distribution lines has been met with concerns.

Even in a year in which the Stuxnet attack targeted critical infrastructure systems and attacks on grid operators rose dramatically, operators of critical infrastructure around the world took few steps to increase their cyber defenses, a new report found.

New vice chairman of the CIO Council Richard Spires said he wants small and large agencies to learn from each other when it comes to implementing IT reforms. Small agencies have a different type of challenge than larger ones in implementing OMB's 25-point plan.

NIST cloud guidelines address security, privacy concerns We told you last week about the two draft cloud documents NIST published. This week, Federal News Radio spoke with NIST computer scientists Lee Badger and Tim Grance about those docs. Federal News Radio host Chris Dorobek also discussed how agencies can take advantage of the costs and [...]